How to choose a good martial art club?
May 16th 2008 03:48
It might seem that all the clubs are more or less similar; but it does not suffice to pay your lessons, buy a kimono and get started to be in good hands. You might even be satisfied with your club ; but because you don't have any comparison point it might not be a good one.
Clubs can make a big difference on what you learn, the skills you get and even if you enjoy the martial art or no. Adding to that, when the instructor is not good enough you might hurt yourself just because you are not doing the moves properly.
First things always go for a trial (one session or two); to try and see what is going on in the class.
Don't forget that the Sensei or instructor being good in his discipline doesn't imply that him being a good instructor.
An instructor that is not looking at you when showing you a move is not a good instructor: first because u see better what he is doing, second because he can see you doing it and therefore correcting you.
An instructor that shows you a move and make you repeat it just a couple of times is not a good instructor: to get a move correctly you have to repeat it again and again and again and again. Why? because you have the time to remember it, to sens if you are doing it right (quite often it is not the case in the beginning, you are unbalanced...etc) by repeating it you feel if there is something wrong or not; and for your instructor to have the time to see what everybody does and correct them.
An instructor that stops everybody from doing an exercise (kick, punch or even push ups) to show one or two persons how to do it is not a good instructor. The only time he should stop everybody is in the unlikely case that almost everybody is doing it wrong. In that case you may wonder why the higher belt are doing it wrong too? they should not.
An instructor who separates beginners and advanced (different classes or separation within the same class) didn't quite well understand the principle of the martial art Dojos. why? Simply because it is part of the philosophy and the goals of the martial arts to mix the different level:
It makes you progress more and more quickly as a beginner, because you are pushed by the fact that you are competing or training with people who are more experienced. They can give you advices, you will see things and experience things that you will not with only beginners. You will see new moves that you would like to try and get excited by the things you will soon be able to do. It will be more challenging and more interesting.
You may wonder what would that bring to an experienced. Well first humility, there is always things to learn from everybody even if you are experienced. You can at that that everybody needs to work and their basic moves, experienced or not. And finally helping the others and seen the others make mistakes can improve your own understanding when you try to help them out.
An instructor that actually tells you to do not try this or that because it might be too difficult for you (specifically if they don't know what you are able of) is ..... well you got it now: NOT a good instructor. Why? because he should push you at least to try, and push you outside your comfort zone. The way to progress is trying new things and challenging yourself and pushing your limits. My best instructors used just a little bit more: a little bit more than what I though I could for the stretching, a little bit more for the exercises, a little bit higher for the kicks and surprisingly you can do a little bit more then what you thing is your limit. not too much either but a tiny bit not too much you can get hurt.
Surely you have noticed that I focused on what the instructor shouldn't do but these are common things that I noticed in clubs, as the same time I explained what he should do instead.
What should he/she do?
-face you at all time
-correct you individually
-make you repeat again and again the moves
-push your limits
-mix experience and inexperienced , boys and girls
-and one thing that I didn't mention before but lead the warming not ask you to do it yourself. It is very important to warm up properly so you will not hurt yourself stupidly and who better then him knows how and which muscles are going to be involved in the training?
These are starting points to evaluate a good club the rest is up to you to evaluate it: competitively, ambiance of the clubs...all kind of things that can interest you or disturb you in a club.
I have to point at the fact that this is an advice for martial arts not necessarily to any sport: for example if you do boxing I am not sure it is good to put experienced and beginners together... and so on.
Good luck in finding your club or changing to a new one!
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